Manny Manz — Enmanuel Castillo — is a Dominican singer working in bachata and urban music from the United States. He was born in Santo Domingo in 1985 and left for the States at fifteen.

Coming to it late

He did not grow up in the music. By his own account he fell for it at twenty-one, and everything he has recorded came after that — which puts him in a different position from most of the artists around him, who were singing in church or on a corner from childhood.

Yo No Sé, made with El Futuro of Fuera de Órbita, is the record that travelled furthest and it is still the most watched thing he has. Uno Pal Otro is the other one that carried.

The catalogue

Cuéntale, released in June 2018, he cut with Bachata Heightz — the group that came out of the Dominican diaspora in the north-eastern United States and built a bachata for people who grew up between two languages. That is the lane he works in.

Around it sit Desgracia, Mariana, Inolvidable with El Director de la Película, Scammer with Choco el Artista, Viernes 13 and Vecino Viejo.

He releases independently and at his own pace, which for an artist in the diaspora usually means the day job pays for the studio.